Thailand ranks fifth in the world for stress levels felt by business leaders over the past 12 months, according to a Grant Thornton Thailand survey.
A net 55% reported an increase in stress, behind only Greece (67%), China (60%), Taiwan (57%) and Vietnam (56%).Ian Pascoe, a managing partner of Grant Thornton Thailand, said many interviews were done last November during the massive floods, so the increase from a net 10% observed in 2010 is perhaps understandable.
Globally, levels of stress felt by business leaders showed their lowest annual increase since 2005, according to the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR).
With economies depressed and the outlook for many still uncertain, the question is raised as to whether business leaders are tempering their goals to alleviate stress, adding a further brake to growth, or whether they have learned to better manage the challenges they face.
In 2010, a net 45% of business leaders reported an increase in stress levels over the trailing 12 months, but this fell to 28% last year.
This pattern is consistent around the world. A net 21% of business leaders in North America had an increase in stress level last year, compared with 35% in 2010.
The Asia-Pacific is the most stressed region, with a net 44% reporting an increase in stress over the past 12 months, but this too is down from 58% in 2010.
Even in distressed Europe, the focus of economic turbulence, the figure fell to 22% last year from 40% in 2010.
"As the economic crisis has continued, the majority of business leaders have learned to better manage the challenges they are facing," Mr Pascoe said.
"This is just as true in the booming BRIC economies as in troubled Europe."
Reaching performance targets is by far the biggest headache for businesses: 30% of business leaders cite it as the major cause of workplace stress, as do 37 of the 40 economies covered by the survey.
Stress caused by volume of communications, office politics (both 11%) and work-life balance (9%) are cited much less.
Professor John Maule, an expert in decision research at Leeds University Business School in England, says the heightened demands on managers that occur during periods of economic volatility have the potential to raise stress levels.
Even so, people try to actively manage these demands to reduce stress levels.
Since they are powerless in face of the pressures coming from the external business environment, they look internally for the solution.
Activities such as sports are the principal way in which business leaders relieve stress.
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